whack-a-mole

Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. The practice of trying to stop something that persistently occurs in an apparently random manner at the point where the occurrence is noticed, such as terminating spammers’ e-mail accounts or closing pop-up advertisement windows.

Etymologies

From the arcade game Whac-A-Mole, which involves quickly and repeatedly hitting the heads of mechanical moles with a mallet as they pop up from holes. (Wiktionary)

Examples

That process, which some advocacy groups have referred to as "whack-a-mole," is costly for both sides, Warren said.

Mr. Assad's forces appear to be increasingly resorting to a brutal game of whack-a-mole by relying on increasingly heavy weaponry, said Andrew Tabler, a Syrian expert at the Washington Institute for Near Policy, referring to the carnival game where players bash a mole which rears its head from one hole, only to see it pop up from another.

The fragmented, fractured media is, of course, partly to blame, as Obama finds himself playing whack-a-mole to every manufactured 24-hour news drama that erupts from someone's latest Twitter message or blog post.